11 
at Black Notley, near Braintree, in Essex. He was edu- 
cated at Cambridge, where he greatly distinguished himself. 
He first brought into notice that which is called the natural 
system in the vegetable kingdom, and gave the classical 
name to many of our English Eerns. He lived in the reign 
of Charles the Second, and was a Nonconformist. At the 
present day Moore, Hooker, and Newman take the lead. 
DESCEIPTION OE A EEEN. 
A Eeen is the highest order of not-flowering plants, and 
has fibrous vascular tissue. The leaf or leafy part is called 
a frond. Plate I. b to e. What is below the frond, is the 
stalk (stipes) Plate I. e to a. It has fibrous roots, a creep- 
ing underground- stem (rhizome) or an upright trunk or 
stem (caudex). The stalk and sometimes 
the mid-rib or mid-stem (rachis) of the frond 
is for the most part covered with scales. 
Vide Plate I. fig. e to a. Though a Eern 
has no flower, it has clusters of spores (seeds) 
in thin bags invisible to the human eye. In 
most cases these bags have a jointed elastic 
ring usually incomplete, which bursts open 
when the spores are ripe, and allows them to 
escape. In the representation here given 
the partjp^^ is the elastic ring, and the rest of the figure 
the spore bag. This, too, cannot be 
seen without a microscope. Most species 
have the fruit on the back of the leaves, 
and have their buds rolled in (circinate) 
before the fronds are expanded. Small 
as the bags are, and unperceived by the 
human eye, the spores or seeds con- 
tained within them are still more minute. 
“ Tlie seeds of fern which by prolific heat, 
Cheered and unfolded form a plant so great, 
Are less a thousand times than what the eye 
Can unassisted by the tube descry.” — Blakemore. 
